Thanksgiving 2016

This year, Thanksgiving looked quite a bit different than in years past. Since my parents are in Florida and B's family is in New Jersey, it's just my sister and I locally. This year, my sister was invited to spend Thanksgiving with Mr. Jon's family and so we were talking and debating ways to make it work that we could have the kiddos together for the holiday. Mr. Jon overheard our debate and mentioned it to his mom, Ms. Kim (we love Ms. Kim) and Ms. Kim invited our little trio to their home for Thanksgiving this year. We happily accepted the invitation! ...Until Natalie got sick and was throwing up and got me sick too the day before Thanksgiving.  So with no turkey, no sides, no pie - B and I scrambled to make it all work. After all, this is our favorite holiday.

Wednesday morning B and I made a list of the Thanksgiving necessities: turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, stuffing, pie. We did some research. With a little bit of work and a lot of prayers, we could thaw a small turkey overnight. So my sweet husband packed up the sick toddler, crossed his fingers for no accidents in the car and set out for the grocery store to find the smallest turkey they had (which happened to be 12lbs).  He spent Wednesday diligently checking on the turkey and changing out the water to make sure the turkey thawed in time. It did! 

B covered Nat in paper towels just in case :)

Thursday morning, Nat got up bright and early. Shocker. B got up to take the dog out and then brought me tea in bed so Nat and I could snuggle while he jumped in the shower. Once he was ready we headed to the kitchen and B made us a pancake breakfast :) He definitely knows how to spoil his girls!  After breakfast, we headed back to the family room and watched the parade. I was so excited to watch the parade with Natalie but I think she may still be a year too young because it didn't much hold her attention. However, she loved the Rockettes and practiced her own leg kicks. Nat and I snagged a quick shower before she decided to take a nap leaving B and I to prep dinner.

My poor pitiful sick girl.

Somehow, someway, we pulled it off. We had Thanksgiving with all the fixings: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls and pumpkin pie. 

However, right as we were going to sit down for dinner, Nat spiked a fever of 103* which required us to put dinner on hold and get her into the bath. Once we got her settled, she opted for a rice cake over dinner. I am sure the pilgrims also enjoyed rice cakes that day... Regardless of the situation, the little miss never stopped being her goofy, silly, ridiculous self which is something B and I were both incredibly thankful for!

Here's to another Thanksgiving in the books. While it all worked out in the end, I'll be especially thankful if we never have a Thanksgiving like that again!

Tim's 5th Birthday

This past weekend we celebrated my nephew's 5th birthday and I really cannot believe it is even possible that he is five years old. He is turning into such a smart, funny, charming little guy and Brandon and I are so proud of how far he has come in the last three years.

Just like with Natalie's birthday, I opted to create Tim's birthday invitations again this year and I love love love how they came out!

Michelle and I made the command decision to go with a superheroes theme and I had so much fun putting together his party. Pinterest and Amazon made party planning and decorating a total breeze! 

Michelle picked up matching superman/supergirl capes for Tim and Nat and it was something that I absolutely loved :)  The two made quite the duo! 

As favors, Michelle got super hero capes, masks and themed totes which came in handy because Michelle had set up stations around the rec center with different games for the kids to play. There was face painting, a bean bag can toss, a spider web bean bag game and a bucket toss game. Each station had candy as a prize and the kiddos could put the candy right into their tote bags. They were also able to put their loot from the pinata in their tote bags!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a ton of pictures because I was manning one of the stations. However, I think it's safe to say that all of the kiddos had so much fun (I know that Natalie did!) and Michelle was really happy with how everything turned out :)

Under the Sea for 3

Saturday we celebrated our feisty little girl turning three with a mermaid themed birthday party. Again this year, I opted to create her invitation myself and I am pretty pleased with how it turned out!

We kept the party pretty small and the turnout was comparable to years past. She doesn't have a ton of tiny human friends so it was mostly my friends who have tiny humans and her best friend from daycare, Savannah :)  

For the most part, the decor came from Amazon - hello $4, 38 inch balloons. With the exception of the huge balloons, I kept it super simple. I worked with Amanda from Paper Supply Station to get banners and the most perfect cupcake toppers. Amanda was super responsive, open to collaborating and super easy to work with.  She really helped to make my vision come to life and I highly recommend her shop to everyone planning a party of any kind in the near future :)

Natalie's outfit came from RSS Custom Creations run by the sweetest military couple, Sarah and Ricardo. I love love love the tutu and personalized shirt combo and was thrilled with how it come out! 

The kiddos requested to play outside which was totally fine by me.  So after lunch they ran wild in the yard for a little bit before coming in to paint frames and boxes. I was a bit hesitant with the painting but it's one of Nat's favorite things to do and I wanted her to love her party. All things considered, it was really fairly clean and Natalie is the child who made the biggest mess! 

After painting there was more outdoor play before cupcakes and presents.  All in all, I would say that Natalie had a very successful 3rd birthday party :)

As always, you can check out my Under the Sea for 3 Pinterest board for more inspiration!

Natalie | Age Three

This year I wanted to start something new with Natalie, a birthday interview. I want to always remember these little things about her.

How old are you: *hold up her pinky, ring and middle fingers to indicate three*

What is your favorite food: carrots and salad (although, B and I agree that this is random and false and the real answer is pizza and french fries)

What is your favorite toy: my puppies from Savannah. (That she so sweetly named Hanky and Gemma)

What is your favorite movie: Tangled

What is your favorite tv show: Curious George

Who is your best friend: Mr. Jon!

Who is your best friend at Ms. Cheryl's house: Savannah

What do you like to do for fun: I like to play outside with my boys and girls and Savannah. Savannah's my girl. 

What is your favorite game: the fox (Highlight's Shapes game)

What is your favorite color: pink.... purple, blue, red, yellow, green. Those are all my colors.

What is your favorite song: Mary had a little lamb. (Her version of the song goes: Mary had a little lamb little lamb in the funny white snow.)

What do you love to wear: my shiny dress.

What do you love most: ummm YOU.

What makes you happy: umm you make me happy.

What do you want to be when you grow up: I want to be the vet.

Friday Five

What a dang week. Seriously. On so many levels. We don't need to go into the why because we all know; however, I will say this, I hope that we can all come together as a country, regardless of who we voted for, and stop being angry and work together to make a difference.  

Moving right along, it's that time of the week again. Here are my Friday Five:

1. Chick-fil-A catering. It is Natalie's birthday party weekend [insert the crying emoji here] and we wanted to go simple, yummy and kid approved.  Hello Chick-fil-A.  I opted to go with chicken nuggets, chicken strips and a fruit salad. We'll pick up some chips and juice boxes, maybe I'll make pasta salad, and boom - easy peasy lemon breezey. 

2. Munchkin Miracle 360 cups.  Have y'all heard about these? Am I late to the party in this obsession? Natalie was recently gifted one and then I went on Amazon and bought a few more. They are seriously amazing and they are actually spill-proof. No joke - I found one in our bed the other morning (ugh, I know, we need to kick her out) and it had not leaked one little drop.  It really is the best transition cup, in my humble opinion, so we have kicked the sippy cups (even though we seriously loved our replay recycled cups!) and graduated to this big girl cup! 

3. Y'all, I am a firm believer that every holiday needs it's time to shine. I love Thanksgiving more than any other day of the year (well, with the exception of maybe my birthday). I say that to say this... Starbucks got me. I love the red cups. I love the peppermint mocha. I have been drinking it all week and feeling so terrible but so happy every time I order it.

4. Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies. The party favors for Natalie's birthday party this year are going cookies in the shape of mermaids. Something simple, sweet and easy to make. These cookies were a hit at two separate holiday cookie exchanges and my baby shower and I absolutely love them. They are REALLY easy to roll out and cut which makes them super fun to make with tiny humans. Bonus - they are not overly sweet. Even my sweet-toothless husband LOVES them!

5. Highlights Magazine. A few weeks ago when I ordered Natalie's winter wardrobe from Carter's/Osh Kosh there was a coupon for a free 6 magazine subscription to Highlights and you could pick which one of their magazines best fit the age of your child. Just for shits and giggles, I was like welp, it's free, let's give it a shot. Y'all, I am SO happy I did! The first issue came over the weekend and Natalie was so excited to have mail of her own! She has been reading the magazine over and over all week and was so excited to show B's parents when they came to visit. 

Then, as if I couldn't love it enough, I get an email from Highlights about their apps for the kiddos. We decided to check it out and were really pleased with the options. I downloaded a free one first (duh, not spending money if she hates it) and she seemed excited for something new! I am debating downloading the $2.99 Highlights Monster Day app. Apparently it won the 2016 Editor's Choice Award from Children's Technology Review. 

Welp, that's that. Now time to get through my work Friday (bonus: it's Thanksgiving luncheon day around here [all the praise hands]) then it's a weekend full of celebrating our little girl turning THREE. Holy crap. If you follow me on Instagram, be prepared for birthday-gramming overload! #sorrynotsorry 

Happy Weekending, y'all!

weekending | home projects

Y'all we are 3/3 for kick ass weekends lately.  Nat was under the weather this past weekend so we did not anticipate such a fabulous weekend but we kept it fairly low key, did some projects around the house and Alabama won making it a pretty awesome weekend indeed. Bonus: Natalie actually kind of a little bit slept in on Sunday.

Saturday morning, B was tasked with turning the playroom door into a half door. We did this in our kitchen at the townhouse instead of buying another baby gate and it seemed to work well so we opted to do that with the playroom. I love love love how it came out. 

It allows Natalie to feel like she has her own space (girlfriend loves to close the door to the playroom) but it prevents her from locking herself in there (again). This will also come in handy during naps (and when my nephew spends the night) to make sure the dogs actually leave her(/him) alone.

While B worked on this project, I worked on a couple little projects of my own.  I took a piece of furniture from our kitchen and put it in the dining room to make a little coffee bar.  Our dining room is spacious and it always felt like something was missing so I was excited to see how well this fit in the space.  I was a bit nervous about how B would feel about it since I was taking the coffee maker out of the kitchen but he loved the idea! I just need to find a cute sign to hang on the wall. Oh darn, a trip to Home Goods is in my future :) 

Then I lugged a table upstairs from the laundry room (because I am all that is woman stubborn) and into the kitchen.  We added some hooks to the wall for backpacks and jackets, a basket for Natalie's shoes and boom! It cleaned up the space and made it far more organized and practical!

On Sunday, Natalie surprisingly slept until 7 which allowed us to kind of enjoy the fall back of the clock and the extra hour. B's parents came for brunch and a quick visit to celebrate Natalie's birthday since they are unable to make it next weekend for her party. B and Nat had a nice visit and Natalie was able to spend some time with her grandparents. 

All in all, we had a really nice little weekend.  And because no post is complete without a picture of this little gem...

Seriously? Is she going to be three or thirteen on Sunday?!

Fall Scarf Exchange 2016

Last year I was late to the party and missed out on the Fall Scarf exchange so when I saw that Elizabeth, Whitney and Courtney were going to do it again this year, I jumped at the chance to participate! 

I was paired with Lindsay from the Flawed Perfectionist and I immediately felt like we were meant to be paired for a reason. I am a firm believer that people are brought into your life for a reason and I am feeling so very lucky that Lindsay was brought into mine. We instantly clicked and bonded over our girls and our thoughts on baby #2. 

While I know she'll share too, I wanted to share a little bit about what I sent her since I totally forgot to take a quick picture before popping it into the mail. I picked out a cream and dark pink (almost purple, really) super cozy infinity scarf, an Alex and Ani bracelet, a face mask and, of course, chocolate. Since Lindsay and I immediately bonded over motherhood, I couldn't help but snag the Hand in Hand bracelet for her. 

I was so excited when Ed, our delivery guy, dropped off my package from Lindsay! I could not wait to open it and Lindsay did not disappoint.

Lindsay and her daughter, Stella, sent Natalie the sweetest birthday gift in theme with her under the sea for 3 birthday party! My mama heart melted. Natalie has been snuggling her Ariel doll and slathering on the lip gloss for the last couple weeks haha

For mama, Lindsay sent the most amazing smelling hand creme (it's a super light scent that compliments my perfume perfectly!) that I have been wearing daily, apple pancake mix that is local to her (and was super delish for Sunday morning breakfast!) and the softest, warmest, animal print scarf that was love at first sight!  I couldn't wait to try it on and was instantly bummed that we had been having unseasonably warm (like low 80s) weather that week and I had to wait to wear it out! However, that did not stop me from taking a selfie in it!

You'll have to excuse my kitchen selfie but I had to try it on! LOVE!

I seriously made out like a bandit, and so did Natalie! Thank you so much Lindsay! You are the sweetest and we absolutely love all of our goodies! And thank you Elizabeth, Courtney and Whitney for hosting!

Nat says...

God bless this little girl and the things that come out of her mouth!

Nat's current signature phrases:

"I'm just so tired." - every time she is getting in trouble.

"I'll never let you down. I never lose you again." - every time she is on the potty...

"You're making me mad." - every time she is told no more candy.

"Hold on, I need something from my snack drawer." - every five minutes
"We have to find out!"

8/13/16

Nat: *running into the kitchen* Daddy, are you sick?"

B: No, why?

Nat: I want to make you soup.

B: You know you can eat soup no matter how you feel, right?

Nat: Oooooh. You're sick. I'll make you soup. *Turns and runs back to the playroom*

8/22/16
In the car with B on the way to daycare:
"Don't sing, Daddy. You're bad at singing."

8/23/16
I hear hiccups in my mouth.

8/26/16
Me: Natalie, you need to listen! 
Natalie: In a minute.
Me: Natalie! What did I just say to you?
Natalie: Umm, in a minute.
Me: Natalie! I told you that you need to listen.
Natalie: Oooooh, right right right.

9/1/16
I'll only go to Ms. Cheryl's AFTER a donut.

9/4/16
First thing she said when she woke up:
It's my birthday. I have to set up the tables and chairs and my birthday cake.

9/8/16
Me: Daddy is taking such good care of Mommy.
Natalie: Why?
Me: Because Mommy's back really hurts after her accident.
Natalie: HUH?! Mommy peed on the floor at Mr. Jon's?!?

9/9/16
Tim: Some women have babies
Nat: No they don't.
*silence*
Nat: Tim, hold my hand.
Tim: I'll only hold your hand if you say some women have babies.
Nat: Fine. Now hold my hand.

Tim: Nat, you wanna go on a hayride with me.
Nat: No. I'm scared of hayrides.

9/25/16
While B and I were talking to the salesman at the car dealership:
"We need to find a compromise!"

9/28/16
While on facetime and she is crying hysterically:
Me: I am so proud of you, baby.
Nat: (sniffles) I am NOT a baby. I am a big girl, remember?

10/2/16: If you follow along on instagram, you've seen this gem :)
B: Keep going, sing your song.
Natalie: Don't make mistakes! Don't makes mistakes! Don't make mistakes! Don't make a beautiful song for me.

10/6/16:
Here's the plan, ok? Ok, Daddy makes soup. And Mommy changes her clothes. And I decorate!

10/22/16
After learning that Gemma pooped on the rug in the playroom:
"I think we need a new Gemma!"

10/25/16 
While walking down the hall with the lights off:
"It's so spooky in here!"

10/29/16
Baby Bryce is going to be my best buddy pal.

10/30/16
Nat: My mother gave me a hard time.
B: About what?
Nat: About giving you a hard time.

10/31/16
B: Nat, we talked about this. You have to go to Ms. Cheryl's if you want Tim to come over.
Nat: No, I'm ok. Tim doesn't have to come. 

All the time:
Me: who is your best friend?
Natalie: MR. JON! 

While singing Patty Cake:
Patty Cake, Patty Cake, bakers man. Make me a cake as fast as you can. Roooooll tiiiiiiide.

Lately, on top of being particularly adorable, she is singing everything. I love it.

Halloween 2016

I was unsure how Halloween would play out, given that it fell on a Monday this year, but I have to say, this might have been my favorite one yet. I took a couple hours off of work since Michelle, Mr. Jon and Tim were coming over and I wanted to get things together. I grabbed Nat from Ms. Cheryl's house and we head home to start prepping.

I made our go-to Halloween dinner: mac-o-lantern stuffed peppers and they turned out super cute again this year :) Tim was especially impressed, even if he didn't opt to have a pepper. I made a casserole of the stuffing since I knew Nat wasn't going to eat a pepper which ended up being a really good idea (especially since B has to work late tonight). 

leftover birthday wine + dinner prep

We got the kids into their costumes and took the 853 obligatory pictures (none of which came out well, at all) before hitting the streets.  Michelle and I made sure we had our tumblers of wine for the road while Mr. Jon and B manned the fort to hand out candy [read: drink beer and bromance]. 

By time we got back, B was handing out leftover Easter chocolate since he had been a bit too generous early in the evening. [Insert monkey covering its eyes emoji here.] Michelle and I took over handing out what was left of the candy (to include our least favorite of the kids loot) while B and Mr. Jon took the kids down another street. We finally managed to get the kids inside by bribing them with pumpkin cookies, but not before attempting to get a cute picture of the girls on the tailgate of the truck... maybe we'll have better luck next year!

All in all, I think we had a successful Halloweenie of the cousins trick or treating together :)